A machine, particularly one powered by a combustion engine (e.g., a gasoline powered engine or a diesel powered engine) may include elements, such as a transmission, a drive shaft, and a set of bearings coupled to the transmission and/or the driveshaft. Detecting, or predicting, a failure of the set of bearings may be difficult or impossible using a set of sensors installed on the elements of the machine (e.g., a set of sensors configured to measure vibrations from the elements of the machine). For example, placing the set of sensors on or near the set of bearings may not be feasible given rotational motions of the set of bearings and/or the drive shaft. In addition, placing the set of sensors on another element of the machine may introduce attenuation to vibrations from the set of bearings and/or noise in the form of vibrations from elements other than the set of bearings.
One attempt at determining faults in multiple bearings using one vibration sensor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,047 that issued to Dister, et al. on Apr. 25, 2000 (“the '047 patent”). In particular, the ∝047 patent discloses a diagnostic system and method for obtaining and using vibration data for machine diagnosis and failure prediction. The '047 patent describes that an accelerometer collects analog vibration data which is converted into a digital vibration signal. The processing performed on the vibration data by the processor includes a process referred to as demodulation. One demodulation technique, sometimes referred to as enveloping, is performed by the processor to synthesize the digital vibration data into a form usable for failure analysis. The digital vibration data enters the processor and passes through a band pass filter which removes frequencies outside the scope of interest and within the dynamic range of the processor to form a filtered signal. The filtered signal passes through a rectifier, for example a diode, which forms a rectified signal. The rectified signal passes through a low pass filter which removes the high frequencies to form a relatively low frequency signal. The low frequency signal is passed through a capacitor to produce a demodulated signal. A fast Fourier transform (FFT) is performed on the demodulated signal by an FFT operator to produce a vibration spectrum.
While the diagnostic system and method of the '047 patent may disclose obtaining and using vibration data for machine diagnosis and failure prediction, the '047 patent does not disclose techniques for generating a model of operating conditions of an element of a machine to detect abnormal operation of the element, performing an initial processing step to identify a possible failure of the element of the machine, and/or performing an action to modify operation of the machine after detecting, or predicting, a failure of the element.
The rig management system of the present disclosure solves one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems in the art.